Sunny Days Inside: and Other Stories

by Caroline Adderson

Overview

When the “grownup virus” hits, kids who live in the same apartment building must cope with strange new rules and extended time at home with parents and siblings.

And they survive brilliantly, each in their own way. Twin boys throw themselves into an independent research assignment on prehistoric people and embrace their own devolution. A budding track star is encouraged to run laps on his balcony by a neighbor who has a secret crush on him. A classroom troublemaker reaches out to a teacher when his own father begins to exhibit signs of mental illness. A young entrepreneur saves himself and his hairdresser mother from financial collapse by renting out the family dog. And a girl finds a way to communicate with her hearing-impaired neighbor so that they can spy on the rest of the building. 

The stories follow the course of the pandemic, from the early measures through lockdown, as the kids in the building observe the stresses on the adults around them and use their own quirky kid ingenuity to come up with ways to make their lives better. Funny, poignant and wise, this book will long outlive even the pandemic.

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.3
Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts, words, or actions).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.6
Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narrations.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.3
Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.5
Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fits together to provide the overall structure of a particular story, drama, or poem.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6
Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3
Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.5
Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.6
Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781773065724
Publisher:	Groundwood Books
Publication date:	08/03/2021
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.50(h) x (d)
Lexile:	710L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

CAROLINE ADDERSON is an author of books for young readers and adults. Her picture books include Norman, Speak! (illustrated by Qin Leng) and the Pierre & Paul series (illustrated by Alice Carter). Early chapter books include the Jasper John Dooley and Izzy series, as well as Babble! And How Punctuation Saved It (illustrated by Roman Muradov). Caroline has won the Sheila Egoff Award, the Chocolate Lily Book Award and the Diamond Willow Award, among many other honors. She lives in Vancouver, B.C.

Read an Excerpt

The cave twins were not allowed inside the store to help the cave mother gather food. They had to huddle in the corner of the parking lot far away from other kin groups and watch over the cave baby sleeping in the stroller. While they waited — a very long time — they discussed what cave kids must have kicked around instead of a soccer ball.

“Probably a woolly mammoth skull,” Alek said.

“That wouldn’t roll very far,” Ivan said.

But Alek was on the right track. When they looked up “what are soccer balls made of,” they learned that the inside of a soccer ball was actually called a bladder. 

“We need a bladder,” Ivan said, and they both looked over at the grocery store. 

They ended up kicking a stone around. 

“This probably is Stone Age soccer,” Alek said. “Hunter-gatherers only used stone tools, right?” Both boys pictured the tools they’d seen online. Paleolithic spears and axes.

All at once they came to the same realization, which often happens with twins.

“What are we doing kicking this stone around? We should be hunting!”

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Praise for Caroline Adderson and Sunny Days Inside:

Winnipeg Free Press Top Reads of 2021

CBC Books Best Canadian Picture Books of 2021

“While each vignette is an entertaining short story, it’s the connections among the kids that make this a brilliant read.” — Kirkus, starred review

“Readers ages 9-12 are likely to find themselves revisiting their own days of lockdown … in this understanding read.” — Wall Street Journal

“[A] valuable portrait … of not only the pandemic experience but how adult upheaval of any kind can impact kids.” — Open Book

 “Kids in the building get acquainted from their balconies … Such friendships will see us through this time as well.” — Postmedia

 “This series of eight related stories will not only affect but inspire you.” — Winnipeg Free Press

“Beautifully written.” — CM: Canadian Review of Materials

“[Anderson] has a knack for capturing the voice of each child—the way they think and speak and hope—creating believable characters with whom children can identify.” — Canadian Children's Book News

“Sunny Days Inside reaffirms our connection to one another, and captures a very specific period of time where our world became impossibly small, but we still managed to find wonder within it.” — Open Book

Editorial Reviews

Kids in the building get acquainted from their balconies … Such friendships will see us through this time as well.

Postmedia

[Adderson] has a knack for capturing the voice of each child—the way they think and speak and hope—creating believable characters with whom children can identify.

Canadian Children's Book News

This series of eight related stories will not only affect but inspire you.

Winnipeg Free Press

Beautifully written.

CM: Canadian Review of Materials

Readers ages 9-12 are likely to find themselves revisiting their own days of lockdown … in this understanding read.

Wall Street Journal

A whip-smart, heartfelt, and humorous middle grade novel.

Cloud Lake Literary

Adderson is an artist — her questions are bigger than the moment: how does a child live with adult grief — the loss of livelihood? the loss of dreams? And how do children navigate the loss of their own dreams, dreams so significant and must-have when one is young? … These stories give us models, the knowledge that we have gotten through, and we can get through again, and in the case of Sunny Days Inside, we can navigate with humour and grace.

British Columbia Review

[A] valuable portrait … of not only the pandemic experience but how adult upheaval of any kind can impact kids.

Open Book

★ 2021-06-29
A kaleidoscopic view of how the kids in one urban apartment building experience Covid-19.

Danila and Mimi (Apt. 4A) eagerly await a family airplane trip that gets canceled because of the encroaching pandemic. Their aunt goes on a cruise that turns nightmarish when she is confined to her room, then contracts COVID-19. In this and the other six stories, the children express their fears, isolation, and disappointments about losing everything normal: school, friends, sports, etc. The virus also affects their parents’ mental health. For instance, Conner (Apt. 3C) notices that his dad is smoking more, watches the news obsessively, wears the same clothes every day, and becomes increasingly less capable of helping with remote learning since losing his restaurant job. One day, Conner’s dad yells at Mrs. Watts, the complex’s unofficial grandmother, when he assumes she’s hoarding toilet paper. Conner intervenes to create a positive outcome, prompting his dad to realize he needs help. While each vignette is an entertaining short story, it’s the connections among the kids that make this a brilliant read. Their support of one another and the adults in the building portrays a positive side to lockdowns and quarantines while not sugarcoating the deadliness of Covid-19. The climactic final chapter brings all of the children—and Mrs. Watts—together for a slightly dangerous but informative and emotionally satisfying conclusion. Racial and cultural diversity among the characters is conveyed but not explored; one girl and her father are Deaf.

A compelling montage of stories that will leave readers wanting to know more about each character. (author's note) (Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews